has anyone had success or failure when doing these two surgeries together?
my vision in my left eye is 20/200 because of the erm.I was hoping for some feed back on doing both procedures at the same time or point me in the right direction to find success rates etc. (thank you in advance.)

I just saw my retinologist yesterday. He's been following me for 24 years since he operated on me for a severe retinal detachment and placed a scleral buckle. Have been stable for most of those years but developed a secondary ERM or membrane wrinkle as he calls it. Caused distortion in vision in that eye. The membrane has now thickened and caused swelling of the retina. Cataracts have also developed in both eyes. I'm now 79 1/2.
Cataract surgery was advised for unaffected eye. He's not anxious to operate on the eye with the membrane wrinkle although if it were done the two conditions would be
operated separately first the cataract and followed up with membrane peel. No Dr. ever suggested simultaneous removal of cataract and membrane would be possible. Has your surgeon advised simultaneous removal of catarct and memrane? Usually retinologists don't perform cataract surgery and cataract surgeons don't do retinal surgery so your question is very interesting. Would like to know more.

Last edited by shs50; 11-03-2011 at 09:45 PM.
Reason: Spelling and editorial corrections

Very few Retina Surgeons are capable of doing both Retina Surgery and Cataract Surgery themselves, but I ran across one in Seattle that is qualified and does it that way all at the same time. Some Retina Surgeons like to do back to back surgeries with a Cataract Surgeon going first with IOL, then the Retina Surgeon follows right after.

I chose NOT to go to him however and had the Retina surgery by another Retina Surgeon 6 months ago. Within 3 months I developed a Cataract that reduced my vision back to 20/400...which was worse than pre-surgery with the ERM membrane. Now I am searching for a qualified Cataract Surgeon who is brilliant at doing Cataract Surgery on Vitrectomy patients, since there can be more potential complications with us.

Tubint:
Your two posts have me completely confused. First you say you're looking to have a cataract and ERM removed in a single surgery which we on the east coast have never heard of.Then you said you had the cataract removed and an IOL inserted. Next you say you already had the retinal peel and then developed a subsequent severe cataract which I'm told is par for the course. Is the cataract following the ERM peel a second cataract in the same eye?
If you could clarify the sequence of surgeries and whether you had a prior cataract or it developed after the peel it might make more sense.

In my case the Retinal Surgeon who rehabilitated my detachment and applied a scleral buckle 24 years ago held off on the ERM peel because he said it would cause a premature cataract. Now that age related cataracts have developed in both eyes he advises addressing the cataract in the good eye first which is straightforward and then removing the cataract in the complicated eye. Then he would consider a vitrectomy if the potential benefit outweighs the risk. Retinologists usually don't handle cataracts and regular opthalmologists aren't qualified to do retinal surgery. I'd be wary of a "jack of all trades".
My retinal surgeon never heard of attempting cataract and membrane removal in the same surgery.

1) I NEVER did have the Cataract/Retina surgery together, that was just the one "opinion" from one of the 4 Retina Specialists that I saw in search of my Retina Surgeon for my recently discovered ERM in May, 2011. I did NOT have a Cataract pre-ERM surgery.
That particular Retina Specialist always did his ERM surgeries at the same time as a Cataract removal and IOL implant (he was qualified to do both himself, which is rare).

He does the Vitrectomy ERM/peel surgery whether or not his patient had an existing Cataract at the time. His opinion was that a Cataract was inevitable post Vitrectomy/ERM peel, so he would avoid the need for a second surgery.
I DID NOT CARE FOR THAT RETINA SPECIALIST OR THAT PHILOSOPHY, SO WENT TO ANOTHER RETINA SPECIALIST FOR MY ERM SURGERY.

2) I did not have a Cataract pre-ERM surgery (just a "trace") but have developed one fairly quickly (within 3 months post ERM surgery).
I am presently researching the addtl. risks of Cataract surgery on a prior Vitrectomy/ERM peel patient. I will schedule this Cataract surgery when I find a Surgeon I feel comfortable with, and when my Retina swelling (OCT shows) goes down.

My good eye only has a Trace cataract presently, and I plan to leave that one alone as long as possible.

Thanks for the clarification. Now it all makes sense. Think you made the right decision to not use the surgeon who does the two surgeries together. My own logic tells me that approach is a little too novel and aggressive for such delicate and critical surgery.
I prefer a more conservative approach using tried and reliable methods since its difficult to redo a bad outcome with one's eyes. Wonder what his outcomes look like and how many times he's performed the simultaneous surgery.
Best of Luck with your cataract surgery. I'm sure you'll do fine with a more conventional surgeon. I'm getting my good eye done as soon as it can be scheduled to improve my night vision and then we'll deal with the cataract in my left eye first and make a determination whether to peel the membrane or leave it alone based on my post cataract vision in that eye.
Bob

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tubint (11-12-2011)